One KPI Doesn’t Fit All - How to Communicate Renewals Success Across Your Executive Team
David Pinto | Principal Consultant | RenewalsHub
May 2025
In renewals, data is power…
… not just because it shows what’s happening, but because it shapes decisions, drives investment and builds trust. But that power only matters if the renewals data is delivered in a way that resonates with the audience you, as a representative of the Renewals organization, are speaking to. When leaders don’t see their priorities reflected in the data, they tune out, no matter how strong your metrics are.
Too often, renewals teams create a single report or dashboard and circulate it to every function: Sales, Finance, Customer Success, Product, Operations and Channel. The assumption is that the same KPIs (net revenue retention, churn, renewal rates, etc.) will carry the same weight with each group.
But they don’t.
What gets a CRO’s attention might not even register for a CFO. What a Customer Success leader cares about may not interest the head of Product. And that disconnect has consequences, including missed business opportunities, sub-par decision-making, lack of executive sponsorship and underinvestment in renewals strategy.
To build a scalable, strategic renewals motion, you must do more than track performance, you must communicate it effectively. That means tailoring the message, metrics and narrative to each audience.
Here’s how to do it.
1. Understand That Different Roles = Different Definitions of Success
Let’s start with a simple truth: executives interpret KPIs through the lens of their own priorities. If you don’t speak their language, your data won’t resonate with them.
CRO (Chief Revenue Officer): Focused on revenue growth and predictability. Wants to see renewal rates by segment, expansion opportunity, close rate trends and renewal forecast accuracy.
CFO (Chief Financial Officer): Prioritizes predictability and risk. Looks for net revenue retention (NRR), deferred revenue alignment, aging renewals and variance to forecast.
CS (Customer Success Leader): Wants insight into churn reasons, health score trends, product adoption, customer relationships impacts and where upsell opportunities are being lost.
Product Leader: Cares about which features correlate with retention, what feedback loops exist from renewals and churn and how usage patterns shift near renewal time.
Partner / Channel Leader: Seeks visibility into partner-managed renewal rates, incentive performance, deal margin and partner pipeline coverage.
As each of these leaders sees the renewals engine from a different angle you must meet them where they are.
2. Customize the Story Without Rebuilding the Wheel
You don’t need a different dashboard for every function, but you do need to design your reporting experience with flexibility.
Start with a core narrative that anchors the business in the essentials:
Gross and net renewal rates
NRR and churn trends
Forecast accuracy
Risk / churn potentials
Expansion opportunities
From there, build custom views that align the data to specific stakeholder interests:
For Sales / CRO: Add views of renewal pipeline velocity, conversion rate by rep or region and overlap with expansion motion(s). Show how renewals contribute to overall revenue predictability and where sales enablement is impacting renewal close rates.
For Finance / CFO: Include forecast accuracy by month or quarter, variance to forecast and highlight at-risk renewals based on historical performance. Connect renewals data to deferred revenue projections and demonstrate improvements in revenue risk management and progress in expansion (cross-sell, upsell at time of renewal).
For Customer Success (CS): Show renewals tied to customer health scores, levels of CSM engagement, the breadth of stakeholder relationships within accounts and renewal saves vs. losses. Highlight how early intervention efforts are translating into retained revenue and improved customer lifetime value.
For Product Leadership: Provide insights into product usage trends leading up to renewal, correlations between feature adoption and retention and real-world churn feedback. Include aggregated insights from renewal conversations to help inform product roadmap prioritization.
For Partner / Channel Leaders: Offer visibility into partner-managed renewal performance, incentive effectiveness, deal profitability and renewal pipeline coverage across partner tiers. Highlight where partners are succeeding and struggling with retention and how channel enablement programs are impacting outcomes.
When you walk into an executive meeting with a single static chart, you’re asking others to translate it themselves. When you tailor the view, you’re doing that translation for them, and becoming a strategic partner in the process.
3. Focus on Outcomes, Not Just Activities
Don’t just report on actions - report on impact.
Instead of saying:
“We’ve contacted 92% of renewals due this quarter,” say:
“We’ve engaged 92% of customers with renewals due this quarter, and that early engagement has increased our on-time renewal rate by 14 points over last quarter.”
Each function wants to understand how renewals performance affects their world:
For CROs: Highlight the contribution of renewals to total revenue and pipeline balance.
For CFOs: Show how improved renewal forecasting has narrowed revenue risk windows.
For CS: Demonstrate how early risk detection led to proactive save motions.
For Product: Provide real examples of churn tied to missing capabilities or poor adoption.
For Channel: Illustrate how partners have enabled coverage scale and the impacts to revenue.
When renewals reporting focuses on outcomes, it shifts the conversation from reactive to strategic.
4. Ask This One Question Before Every Executive Update
Before sending that next renewal report or walking into an executive QBR, ask:
“What would this leader need to see to say, ‘We’re winning in renewals?”
Then reverse-engineer your update from there. For example:
If the answer for your CFO is “clean, predictable forecasting,” make sure your deck clearly shows that trend - don’t bury it under operational details.
If the CRO wants to know whether sales is supporting the motion, lead with conversion metrics and sales enablement effectiveness.
When you frame your story around their definition of success, you create alignment and gain champions.
5. Why This Matters More Than Ever
As companies move toward more mature, scalable renewals motions, they need broad executive buy-in. That only happens when leaders see renewals not just as a support function, but as a strategic lever for growth.
Generic reporting makes renewals feel transactional. Tailored reporting makes it feel essential.
The most effective renewals leaders don’t just track performance, they translate it. They turn data into a narrative, align that story to the right audience and ensure that renewals success is seen, valued and funded.
Because at the end of the day, one KPI doesn’t fit all. But one well-communicated story can move them all forward.
Ready to Elevate How You Communicate Renewals Success?
If your renewal reports are falling flat or are not earning the executive buy-in your team deserves, it may be time to reframe the story. At RenewalsHub, we help organizations turn renewal data into strategic insight, with tailored frameworks that speak the language of Sales, Finance, Customer Success, Product and beyond.
Let’s make sure your metrics drive action, not just awareness.
Explore how RenewalsHub can help at renewalshub.com, or reach out directly to start a conversation.
Take our free 2-minute RenewalsHub Renewals Maturity Self-Assessment to identify gaps and start building your renewals motion with intent.